Mendez Family

A picture of us giving out some toys we had brought to the children at outreach centre.









How was Guatemala? An overall positive, in my opinion my favourite time of going to Guatemala so far. That was probably because I could speak so much more Spanish this time that I didn’t have to concentrate all the time and could just relax. Also because I feel like I know Omar’s family a lot more now.

The flight out there was really tough with Ben not sleeping much during the 10hour leg between Madrid and Guatemala. He wasn’t crying or being bad, just being really really wriggly and loud. Then when we arrived he was so overtired he just collapsed and cried and cried and I thought what have I done bringing my baby to this place? But I was rather tired too at that point and after a good nights sleep both of us felt better.

We were unlucky with the weather as it rained and rained and we couldn’t visit some of the places we love the most, like the beach. We tried driving down there twice (1.5 hours each way) but it was raining so hard with no sign of let up.

The up side of that is that we got to spend a lot more time with Omar’s mum and sisters and brother. Ben has two little cousins and they got on so well together and loved playing with each other so we tried to spend as much time with them as possible.

One really special day was when we went to visit some friends of ours who run an outreach programme for children in a really deprived area who hardly get to go to school because they have to work. They hold children’s programme three days a week with games, learning and then provide them with some lunch. We got to spend a morning with them. It was quite an education for me as I had not been to an area like that before where the houses are shacks made of metal sheets and there is no water or electricity. All the children loved Ben and wanted to touch him and pick him up etc. He coped really well with being surrounded by about 30 kids. It was a really amazing experience as the children wanted to learn so much and even though in our eyes they have nothing of material value they were so positive and happy.

A sad thing that happened was that one of Omar’s childhood friends was killed while we were there. He was a taxi driver and when we go to Guatemala he always drove us around and picked us up from the airport etc. We don’t keep in touch while we are in England and so I just asked Omar one day if he was planning to contact Alan while we were then and he said he would. Then that night Omars mum came home and said he had died that day so it was too late. He left 5 children, the oldest is only 13. Pretty sad.

There is about to be a general election in Guatemala and so loads of campaigning on the streets and posters, tv adverts etc. I don’t know the names of the main two parties but just call them Orange and Green which are their signiture colours. One of Omars best friends is heavily involved with the campaign for the orange party and so we got to find out quite a lot about what is going on politically.

This same friend also arranged for us to spend a night at one of the 5 star hotels in Antigua which was lovely but quite a contrast to our day with the street children.
So that is a brief summary of our time away. It was hard to leave, we all felt it was too short a time. I loved seeing Jennifer again. Some of you might have met her while she was hear in England. It was difficult to say goodbye. Bittersweet.

Los tres Mendez at the butterfly sanctuary

Spending the day at a children's programme in a shanty town in the capital city
Ben got lots of attention from the girls

Ben getting his hair cut by the same barber that gave Omar his first haircut when he was the same age as Ben is now. Omar cried. Ben was fine as he got to sit in car and eat a lollypop.

Ben at his cousin Diego's 6th birthday party with Ninja Turtle Pinata

We had fun at Howletts Zoo - our first ever trip to the zoo as a family.

My dad moving jobs was a chance for us all to get together as we met up for his swearing in service at the new church. Some cheesy grins all round!!

Here is Ben having fun with his friends Abbie and Aiden who come to play every Monday while I go to work.